Podcast Episode #432

Pastors often leave a church for another opportunity too soon. Today we discuss eight reasons pastors leave too soon and how to combat the urge to jump ship too early.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

Leadership brings change. Change brings conflict.

Be careful not to be called to a salary instead of being called to a church.

Personnel teams should keep an eye on staff salaries and make sure they are paid well.

“Ladder climbing” has fallen out of favor with Millennials.

If you’re not able to be satisfied while living in obscurity, you won’t be satisfied if you make it famous either.

The eight examples we cover on this episode are:

We are not presuming on the call of God

A modest amount of conflict

Compensation issues without seeking help

Yielding to the isolated troublemaker

Assuming bigger is better

Lack of patience (sometimes 4 to 5 years to see fruit)

A short period of decline

Burnout

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Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

Comments

I’m in my first pastorate, and have served 14 years so far. Prior to me, our fellowship had three pastors fall to extra-marital affairs, and a fourth pushed out by a faction of the church who “didn’t do things that way.” The pastor before me (my pastor) made a number of changes to lay a healthy foundation (he bore the brunt of revitalization push-back), but then he left suddenly for “greener pastures,” and I was called as interim and eventually ordained as pastor. We are now beginning to see some of the fruit we had hoped for in those first 4-5 years, but this fellowship needed some healing and stability first. I believe that’s been established and I am very glad I didn’t bail out when my expectation weren’t met. God is faithful! God is good!

Any advice on what a pastor’s family should do when the salary or benefits change just a few months into the tenure? My husband has recently taken his first pastorate and just a few months into our time here the finance team decided that paying the family’s health insurance is too costly. The decision was presented to the church as a “raise” for us in that they are now giving us part of the amount that they were paying toward the insurance but we still come up very much short. We do not want to have a short tenure but we want to be able to adequately provide for our family. It is very difficult to minister effectively when we are struggling ourselves.

That would be a breach of contract, so you would have every right to move on because the church is not fulfilling its promises to you. However, what is God calling you to do? If you are to move on, he will let you know. Or is he calling on you to hold the congregation responsible for what they promised? Listen to God. He will give you an answer which will glorify him and meet your needs.